-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Before there was a Tea Party , there was Mary Rakovich .

Rakovich is an anti-abortion rights , pro-environment vegetarian living in Florida with her husband and nine cats .

Many Tea Party activists believe she was one of the first people to publicly protest President Obama 's economic policies .

In February 2009 , Obama was in a Fort Myers , Florida , event hall pitching his stimulus plan . Rakovich stood alone outside the hall , speaking against it . For that , she is considered to be a sort of `` Godmother '' of the Tea Party movement .

Nine days after Rakovich 's protest , CNBC business reporter Rick Santelli publicly mounted his own campaign against the president 's $ 75 billion plan to help struggling homeowners . It happened as Santelli reported live from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on February 19 , 2009 .

`` The government is promoting bad behavior , '' he said in a tirade , claiming that all Americans would be forced to `` subsidize the losers ' mortgages . ''

The stimulus bill `` had nothing to do with job creation whatsoever , '' Rakovich said in an interview with CNN last summer .

And though she rails against government spending , Rakovich relies on one of the biggest spending programs , Medicare , to care for her two bad hips .

`` I do believe that there are times when we need the government to have some type of stopgap measures to help get people back on their feet , '' Rakovich said . `` Those types of people need help . I also believe that as an overall system , that Medicare , as well as Medicaid , they 're broken systems -- they are systems that need to be revived and revamped . ''

`` You know , I 'm very glad that it was there for me and will be there for me . ''

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In February 2009 , Mary Rakovich stood alone and spoke against president 's spending plan

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Some in Tea Party say she was one of the first to publicly protest Obama 's economic policies

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Though she rails against government spending , she does rely on Medicare

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But she says that Medicare and Medicaid `` need to be revived and revamped ''